Constantine the Great

When did Constantine live?

Constantine the Great is dated c. 272 – 337 in the archive, which places Constantine in the Nicene Age (AD 313–400). The dating is traditional and approximate; the archive marks it as uncertain rather than fixing a year the sources do not give.

What did Constantine write?

Constantine the Great has 2 catalogued writings in the archive: The Edict of Milan (with Licinius; text in Lactantius) and Letter to the churches after Nicaea.

Which early sources mention Constantine?

Constantine the Great is named in 4 primary-source passages catalogued here, drawn from Lactantius, Eusebius of Caesarea, Emperor Julian and The anonymous chronicler. Every passage is quoted from a named public-domain translation, earliest first.

Where was Constantine from?

The archive associates Constantine the Great with Naissus, Constantinople. The sources record more than one location, so the places are listed in the order the record moves through them.

We thought it fit to commend these things most fully to your care, that you might know that we have given to those Christians free and unrestricted opportunity of religious worship… each one may have the free opportunity to worship as he pleases.

Earliest witness · Lactantius, De mortibus 48 & Eusebius, HE X.5 (carriers) (c. 313–325 (medieval copies))

That which has commended itself to the judgment of three hundred bishops cannot be other than the doctrine of God; seeing that the Holy Spirit dwelling in the minds of so many dignified persons has effectually enlightened them respecting the Divine will.

Earliest witness · Eusebius (HE X, Vita Constantini) & the Optatan appendix (carriers) (4th c. carriers; medieval copies)

Constantine was directed in a dream to cause the heavenly sign to be delineated on the shields of his soldiers, and so to proceed to battle.

He said that about noon… he saw with his own eyes the trophy of a cross of light in the heavens, above the sun, and bearing the inscription, CONQUER BY THIS. At this sight he himself was struck with amazement, and his whole army also.

[A short secular life that records Constantine’s rise and reign without the theology — the plainest ancient account of either.]

The Origo Constantini Imperatoris (Anonymus Valesianus I), a short secular life of Constantine written in Latin, probably in the later fourth century — valuable precisely because it is neither panegyric nor church history. Critical text: Theodor Mommsen, Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Auctores Antiquissimi IX, Chronica Minora I (1892). English translations: John C. Rolfe, Loeb Classical Library 331 (1939), and Jane Stevenson in Lieu and Montserrat, From Constantine to Julian (1996); neither is in the public domain.